Derived equivalence and Grothendieck ring of varieties: the case of K3 surfaces of degree 12 and abelian varieties (Q2190738)

A Fourier-Mukai pair is a pair \(X\) and \(Y\) of complex smooth projective varieties \(X\) such that the bounded category of coherent sheaves on \(X\) is equivalent to that of \(Y\) as a \(\mathbb C\)-linear category. One also says \(X\) and \(Y\) are \(D\)-equivalent. This very nicely written paper is concerned with the following question (Problem 1.2): If \(X\) and \(Y\) is a Fourier-Mukai pair over \(\mathbb C\), then is \(([X]-[Y])[\mathbb A^1]^n =0\) (for some integer \(n\ge 0\)) in the Grothendieck ring of varieties \(K_0(\mathrm{Var}/{\mathbb C})\)? This question has been the topic of several recent papers and there are many examples (listed in the introduction) where the answer is positive. The first result (Theorem 1.3) of this paper is a very nice example where the answer is positive: For any general K3-surface \(X\) of degree 12, there exists a Fourier-Mukai partner \(Y\) (non-isomorphic to \(X\)) with \(([X] -[Y]) [\mathbb A^1]^3 =0\) in \(K_0(\mathrm{Var}/{\mathbb C})\). The proof which uses vector bundles on homogeneous spaces actually proves a generalization to Calabi-Yau manifolds (Corollary 2.2). The second result of this paper is a beautiful example where the answer to the main question (Problem 1.2) is negative: If \(A\) is a complex abelian variety which is not isomorphic to its dual \(\hat{A}\), then \(([A] - [\hat{A}])[\mathbb A^1]^n \neq 0\) for any integer \(n \ge 0\) in the Grothendieck ring \(K_0(\mathrm{Var}/{\mathbb C})\). The authors note that the first result was strengthened by \textit{B. Hassett} and \textit{K.-W. Lai} [Compos. Math. 154, No. 7, 1508--1533 (2018; Zbl 1407.14010)] using completely different methods (Remark 1.4) and that the second result was independently proved by \textit{A. I. Efimov} [Sel. Math., New Ser. 24, No. 4, 3753--3762 (2018; Zbl 1397.14033)], again using different methods. The paper contains a discussion of various variants of the main question (Problem 1.2) in the last section.